EA responds to Battlefield 3 ESRB rating

By Wesley Yin-Poole Published 11 October, 2011

"For God's sake, there is a nuke in Paris!"

EA has responded to the revelation that in upcoming first-person shooter Battlefield 3 you shoot cops in order to finish a mission with an… interesting statement.

As revealed by Eurogamer last week, US ratings board the ESRB has Battlefield 3 down as a 'Mature' game.

Notes accompanying its rating detailed a few of the more graphic elements in the game.

"The frequent combat is highlighted by realistic gunfire and large explosions; characters sometimes scream and emit large splashes of blood when shot. Players can also engage in hand-to-hand combat: repeatedly punching enemies in the face; stabbing soldiers to death with knives.

"In one sequence, a restrained character's throat is slit (off-screen); in another, players shoot police officers to complete a mission objective. The words 'f***' and 's***' can be heard frequently in the dialogue."

The mention of shooting police officers conflicted with comments made by the game's producer Patrick Back earlier this year.

"If you put the player in front of a choice where they can do good things or bad things, they will do bad things, go dark side - because people think it's cool to be naughty, they won't be caught," he explained.

"We have to build our experiences so we don't put the player in experiences where they can do bad things."

In response, EA issued Eurogamer the following statement: "I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation. For God's sake, there is a nuke in Paris! Millions of lives are at stake!!"

Indeed.

Picture of Wesley.

About Wesley Yin-Poole

Wesley is Eurogamer's news editor. He likes news, interviews, and more news. He also likes Street Fighter more than anyone can get him to shut up about it.

Read more articles from Wesley by visiting the Wesley Yin-Poole archive page.

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Comments (44) Latest comment 4 months ago

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  • towser #1 5 months ago

    A nuke in Paris - had the French got bored blowing up the beautiful Bikini Atoll Islands then?

  • apolloscollapse #2 5 months ago

    "In response, EA issued Eurogamer the following statement: "I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation. For God's sake, there is a nuke in Paris! Millions of lives are at stake!!"

    Haha, awesome response!

  • LazyNinjaUk #3 5 months ago

    *Cancels Pre-order*

    Oh wait, isn't this a game intended for adults anyway? Who gives shit if there's a few naughty words and mindless copper violence? MILLIONS OF LIVES ARE AT STAKE!!
    Edited by 1 at 11/10/11 @ 08:54

  • apoc_reg #4 5 months ago

    What a shock, they have sold out to try and one up MW.

    Thing is as a big BF fan this is all just turning me off the game where as the MW sheep will buy MW instead anyway.

    EA this will bite you in the arse

  • Graveland #5 5 months ago

    Am I the only person who is genuinely bored by the brainless scripting of dialogue in FPS? It seems every other word has to be a swear word these days. It gets really tedious after a while.

  • onezeonx #6 5 months ago

    Nuke in Paris!!!????

    I don't see the problem.....

  • username84 #7 5 months ago

    Graveland

    Yeah but soldiers in war tend to swear. It's all about context.
    If I were playing Mario and he shouted FUCKBUCKETS! while falling to his death I may be shocked.
    A twenty something year old coming under fire is, I think allowed to utter a naughty from time to time.

  • bburdett #8 5 months ago

    @username84 that sounds like the best Mario game of all time.

  • Daddy-Doom-Bar #9 5 months ago

    Thanks for yet another spoiler not signposted, EG. Fuckin retards.

  • Graveland #10 5 months ago

    Username84:

    I still don't think it's necessary, at least not to the level that these games take it. 'Saving Private Ryan' is rightly considered one of the most realistic war films ever made and that film featured virtually no swearing (as far as I recall). The occasional word is fine due to the context, but games like Op Flash: Red River were OTT. It becomes annoying.

  • Agent_Orange #11 5 months ago

    @Graveland
    I know what you mean, in the beta, when you lost on a map, some guy would scream "we're gonna f'ing die!"

    That was annoying the first time I heard it.
    Edited by 2 at 11/10/11 @ 09:28

  • geeza2020 #12 5 months ago

    Does anyone care about anything that happens in the singleplayer anyway? I'll play through it, but it will be utterly forgotten under the hundreds of hours I'll put into the MP, if BFBC2 is anything to go by.

    Sorry, but if you're buying a game that is meant to be a multiplayer game for some stupid "American army saving the world" piece of shit single player mode, you're an idiot.
    Edited by 1 at 11/10/11 @ 12:35

  • acuratebob #13 5 months ago

    im sorry, but if a few coppers were halting my possibilities of saving millions of people, wouldnt you take the shot?

    the few for the many.

    as sad as their family would be it would be worth the sacrifice,also to me the coppers there are bad as the guy that planted it by stopping me in the first place.

    also guys swaring shen being shot at, blood is wholly ezxpected and so is the close quarters action.
    nothing i didnt already expect in a graphic war game.

  • 3william56 #14 5 months ago

    "because people think it's cool to be naughty, they won't be caught"

    Deus Ex, Infamous, Mass Effect and a dozen other games with choices called. They want the last decade back.

    If that's the limit of the designer's understanding about how people play games, this is going to be a pretty sad experience, aimed squarely at juvenile trolls and griefers. A game where Paris was going to be nuked, and you had the choice of shooting cops (easy way out, maybe consequences of fighting cops later and a bad ending) or taking a more difficult/time constrained course to avoid it would be great. Lame forced decisions are pretty pathetic in this day and age.

    As an aside, forced combat with cops was what ruined Mirror's Edge. DICE can make awesome games, but endlessly forcing shooty combat into everything is getting boring. And do they have some sort of problem with the old bill?

  • aldo_14 #15 5 months ago

    Thanks for yet another spoiler not signposted, EG. Fuckin retards.

    It'll probably be in the TV trailer anyway.

  • StooMonster #16 5 months ago

    LazyNinjaUk: Oh wait, isn't this a game intended for adults anyway?

    Sort of, but it will be the number one Xmas present for boys this year I reckon ... from the type of parents who don't care about ratings on games or movies.

  • Ranger101 #17 5 months ago

    There's a single player mode in my Battlefield? How quaint.

  • Liquidoodle #18 5 months ago

    The player shooting the cops probably wasn't the thing that fired this hoo har up, it was the video evidence of the ESRB reviewer tea bagging said cops afterwards that sent out the alarm bells!

  • patchbox360 #19 5 months ago

    "I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation. For God's sake, there is a nuke in Paris! Millions of lives are at stake!!"

    wow

  • Mister-Wario #20 5 months ago

    Right, because to save the world you need to take out the law enforcement.

  • M4RV #21 5 months ago

    "We'll always have Paris."

    Or not.

  • ballshock #22 5 months ago

    Hmm, save paris or shoot cops....... think ill not shoot them then,not cause i love cops, but that way everyone will die, including the cops.

  • TruSmiles #23 5 months ago

    I don't think you guys understand the gravity of the situation.

  • TheEarlOfZinger #24 4 months ago

    Release this shit already.

  • callum9999 #25 4 months ago

    @Stoomonster: Boo hoo. Just because you were a sensitive child unable to distinguish between fiction and reality, doesn't mean everyone else is...

    EDIT: Just out of curiosity, why do so many people think the government (or other official agencies) are so much better at judging what your own child is able to handle? People often moan about bad parenting, but I think "I can't be bothered to get to know my son/daughter, I'll just assume the ESRB knows best" is just as bad. Then again, I'm just not big on censorship full stop.
    Edited by 1 at 11/10/11 @ 11:51

  • ectotropic #26 4 months ago

    I assume the level will be called "No Coppers"? :oP

  • Iain815 #27 4 months ago

    Well, thanks for spoiling that Eurogamer. Again.

  • TeeHee #28 4 months ago

    BF3: all national security forces are subcontracted to America and Russia-- the game.

  • jrb #29 4 months ago

    This will only be a problem if shortsighted irresponsible parents buy the game for their blatanly underage children. Which of course, would never happen. ¬_¬

  • kangarootoo #30 4 months ago

    For those struggling to comprehend -

    http://en.wi kipedia.org/wiki/Gravitation

  • dadrester #31 4 months ago

    SPOILER!!!!

  • dadrester #32 4 months ago

    also... it's clearly not going to be French soldiers you're shooting! They'll all have surrendered or run away by the start of the game.

  • fabio78 #33 4 months ago

    There goes a fine meme right there...

  • GrizzleBoy #34 4 months ago

    Thanks for the motherfucking spoiler alert you cunts.

  • metalangel #35 4 months ago

    "I don't think you understand the gravity of the situation. For God's sake, there is a nuke in Paris! Millions of lives are at stake!!"

    "So? Send in GIGN, they can handle that."

    "The bomb is held by a child! We're powerless to do anything to children! Millions, other children included, will just have to die!"

  • the_dudefather #36 4 months ago

    If a soldier in a FPS said 'oh sugar!' when a grenade landed near him I would be shocked

  • spiny #37 4 months ago

    @onezeonx
    "Nuke in Paris!!!???? I don't see the problem..... "

    1. The Wine
    2. The Women
    3. The Food

    :)

    PS:
    4. The Food

  • spiny #38 4 months ago

    In all seriousness...

    This sort of thing has the potential to elevate games to a true mature level, (not mature as in blood, guts & boobies). Offer the player some moral choices with big consequences.

    Kill innocents to save millions, or stay 'moral' and let millions die?

    Have to say it's probably not that & a missed opportunity though :(

  • JJKrista1 #39 4 months ago

    Best comeback ever.

  • Gammerz #40 4 months ago

    @the_dudefather: "Grenade!" would be a suitable, helpful and realistic response.

  • DRUNK3N-_-DRAGON #41 4 months ago

    wont stop the brats from playing it but,will it?

  • Acrid #42 4 months ago

    Finally those capitalist pigs will pay for their crimes, eh? Eh comrades? Eh?

  • Joco84 #43 4 months ago

    Games like this should not be anything less than an "18" rating anyway, I don't see what the problem is.

    Now if only we could get the teenage mums to stop getting it for their 10 year-old kids.....

  • Kalime #44 4 months ago

    @geeza2020: if you think you know everything, you probably only know very little... ^_^ why calling people who have different opinion "idiots"? no harm intended! cheers ^_^